Thursday, November 30, 2006

Was surfing the net today and saw in the world news section! that Brittany Spears was seen yet again not wearing any underwear. This is so funny to me on so many levels people!!! First...why is it in the world section of the news?? Do people in Zimbabway care if she wears underwear?? Second...how can someone who is caught numerous times without panties be searching for a 29 million dollar home???? See...the light is coming on for you too!!!! I am now going to throw away all my underwear! I am sure that the reason this little pop tart is making so much money and is so famous is cause of the no-underwear-wearing. I have bills to pay and fabric to buy. I just know that a famous director is reading this and is looking for the next big star. He is saying "hmmmmmm, I have 20 bazillion dollars to pay someone to be in my movie...where are all the girls not wearing any underwear??" HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HERE I AM!!!!!!!heehee Just a me havin' a little fun on the ole' blog heehee!

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Tonight I felt a disturbance in the force at Chez' Owens. I knew that one of my young ones were hurting about something. (using "young one" to protect the identity of said child :) )Anyway, I went to the "young one's" room and tried to ask questions that would get him/her to open up and tell me what was wrong. Let me tell you out there that getting a teen (okay that narrowed it down some) to tell you their feelings is a feat next to impossible. I persevered. My young one started talking...and talking...we talked for over an hour. Well, the young one did most of the talking. Lauren told me once that as a parent I need to learn to listen and hear...not listen and try to fix things for them. Sometimes as a parent our job is just to let them know that we are hurting with them, let them get things off of their chest and then keep what we've learned to ourselves. Do not under any circumstances run to the phone and tell your friends! Trust broken is hard to get back. I hugged my young one after everything was out of him/her. After they took a shower he/she came to me and gave me a hug and said something I will treasure forever. This child of my heart said, "thanks mom, I know that at first I didn't want to talk but I really feel better now." Then I got a hug. Who needs diamonds?? I sit here with tears in my eyes thanking God for how blessed I am. These next couple of years are going to be doozies! I have two teens and one trying her hardest to get there fast. I know that as soon as one of them is settled and happy another one will come up to the plate and be miserable. I will need to practice listening and hearing. I will need to pray for them more. I will need to love unreservedly. And at the end, when they are grown and happy my rewards will be when they call me and tell me, "thanks mom." Who can ask for more then that. People let me share something with you...the world is a hard place that will take great delight in knocking our children down. It is our job to pick them up, dust them off and help carry them the rest of the way. Let home be a place where they come to feel at peace. Let home be a place they come to cause they feel loved. The world will teach them how to be tough, we as mothers need to show them how to love and feel good about themselves. I practiced that tonight and I have to tell you...when my "baby" hugged me with a smile on his/her face....sigh..it just makes you feel good.good night all.dawn

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Today was officially Thanksgiving. The Capt had to go to serve his troops today with the other "bosses" so we got up early to go with. As we were getting ready we saw this rope go flying past the window.....I of course ran to get the camera before finding out if this was a terrorist come to abduct one of us. :) Here is what I found at the end of the rope............

The window washer guy. It was time to wash the windows in our building. See this poor man hanging on for dear life!!!? I yelled if it was okay if I took his picture..he seemed to get a kick out of that and told me yeah. There is just a plank under him..no safety ropes or anything. These people live on the edge here!!

After that we got on the road to go and spend Thanksgiving with the troops. Here is the ice sculpture and a Korean woman in traditional Korean dress. No...you're right it is a mannequin.

Here is the Capt getting ready to serve...love that!! Oh, that is "The Jen's" very own Capt in the background..if you're not reading her blog you should!! She is hilarious. Just go to the left of my blog and look for the wacky happenings of us. Between the two of us we've decided to document every inch of Korea!!

Here's desert!

Anthonie sat at the kiddo table with Sarah and Jen's Lauren and Robby. Doesn't he look like he's loving it??!! heehee

Robby is trying to show Sarah and Lauren his ABC food...that's Already Been Chewed Food for those of you without kids. Ant is trying to show me why he deserves more allowance next payday!! hahahaha

After we got done eating and the Capt was finished serving we went home and took a Three! hour nap. We needed energy before we went shopping downtown. Lauren was the only one willing to brave the cold with us. Since she's working she has Won in her pocket that was begging to be spent. Here is a picture of what you can get at one of the many vendors.

This is the movie theatre.

This is just a picture of the street but I thought you'd like to see Korea at night. Now since we hadn't eaten in a whole three hours we decided to go out to dinner. Here is what $4 dollars will get cha".................

This is one of my favorites...pork cutlets, you also get a salad of shredded cabbage and miso soup...I dip my rice in that.

Here is what Lauren got...pork cutlets, sushi and soba soup...all for the hefty price of $5.50!!!!!!!!! heehee dinner is great around here! This is what was left at the end.............

IT WAS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost forgot...here is the stuff you dip the pork cutlets in. They give you this bowl with sesame seeds in it. You take the stick and grind them up. Then you add the red pasty stuff...it's pretty good! Do not under any circumstances stir the red pasty stuff with the stick! Your waitress will come over and mutter under her breath in Korean that you know nothing and then tell the manager he is in charge of you for the rest of the night cause she cannot take one more American! At least that's what I've heard! heehee

After dinner we walked around and shopped a bit. We turned a corner and ran into....yep...A BOY BAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is the Korean N-Sync!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta love it here!! A good time was had by all. Lauren got some winter clothes and made a great deal on a pair of boots.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Sarah had a Thanksgiving Party at school today. I of course went cause, hey...this is a great blogger opportunity. :) Here she is in all of her glory.

This is Sarah's teacher Mrs. Hicks. We put orange paper on all the desks cause you know 4th graders can't keep food on their plates. Tomorrow we have ANOTHER Thanksgiving at the Capt's job. He has to serve his troops....heehee I love it!!! I don't have to fix it and I get to watch him serve food..can anything be better??!!

We had our very first Thanksgiving here in Korea last night. Instead of celebrating on Thursday we decided to invite our English class over on Tuesday for a good ole' fashioned American celebration. I cooked and cleaned all day long!!!!!!!!!!!! We had so much fun!!! Everyone got to our house by 7. The food was hot and my tummy was nervous. It's a lot when you are representing Thanksgiving to a group of people. I so wanted everything to go perfectly. It turned out better then I even hoped for!!Here is Kareem explaining what some of the foods are. The green bean casserole was a big hit as were the yams..you know the kind....you add a ton of butter and slather on the brown sugar topped with marshmallows! What's not to love!!! Oh, let me tell you what we had....I made a turkey and thank God for my mom cause when I told her the size of the bird she made me go out and buy a ham...there was nothing left of either by the end of the night! We also had green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravey, sweet potatoes, salad and stuffing. At the end I brought out the pumpkin pie...the sweet potato didn't set until this morning so I had some of that for breakfast!! heehee

The Captain and Clara...she's trying to hide. heehee

See the two men in uniform?? The one on the right is Jason. The one on the left is his boss, a Capt. The Captain brought us a gift of Korean liquor. It's called Lee Gang Ju. Translated it means Korean Folk Liquor. The correct way to pour is for you to hold your small glass (it must be a small glass) in both hands while someone else pours for you. You do not pour for yourself. It tasted like cinnamon and boy did it burn on the way down!! The bottle it came in is just beautiful. I'm going to keep it!

Here is another gift we received. It is traditional Korean rice cakes. Look how pretty everything is! There are 8 of these small packages in all. Michael I sure do wish you would've been there last night. You would've had so much fun!

Here is Lauren and Sonja getting their grub on!!

Jason!

Our very distinguished Captain!

This was a very special part of the night. The Captains brother drew this picture. There is a better picture of it next. But anyway, his brother drew this and the Capt. presented it to Kareem. It was just lovely!

Here is a better picture. Now his brother drew this!!

Tom!

This is another! present that we got last night. It is just the most gorgeous basket of flowers I've ever seen!

These are traditional Korean masks. Another present that we got last night. The first mask is the Yangban. The second is called the Maid and the third is the Sonbi.

Here is what was left at the end of the night. A good time was had by all and this is going to go down in history as the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. These people have become family in such a short amount of time. What a blessing it is to come to another country and be embraced by the people who live in it. I know that we are teaching them English on Tuesday nights but they are teaching us so much as well. The Korean people are gentle souls who embrace life with gusto. I am having a ball here and I know these next two years are going to go by much to fast. Thank you to our Korean guests for making last night a wonderful memory I will carry in my heart forever!!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

After our Taste of Korea nap I announced that there was no way they were getting a cooked dinner out of me so we went off base to get some dinner. Lauren and her friend had decided to go out to...won in the pocket is a wonderful thing. They "decided" that they didn't want us to go with them cause they wanted to do it all on their own. Well we ended up at the same pork place. This one is a favorite of ours and Sarah had some new practice chopsticks that she had to test. We all pretended that we didn't know each other. :) Don't cha' just love teens??!! Here is Lauren and Church Destiny at their table. Lauren is hiding from me. Oh,....there are three friends of Lauren's named Destiny...there is Destiny Post, who's mom is my friend, Downstairs Destiny...she lives downstairs from Destiny Post and Church Destiny who goes to the same church that we do...hence the name Church Destiny. Whew..was that TMI?? heehee

Anthonie happened to be playing video games at a PC place on the way so Kareem stopped in to get him. He didn't care about sitting with us cause free food is free food to a 17 year old.

This is his Mac Daddy look. :)

Here is our little boo-bear having the time of her life. The lady who owns the place really likes her and always comes over to give her the best parts of the pork. I guess this is why it's her favorite spot.

This is the table grill where you cook your food. Aren't the briquettes neat!! They are like rocks and extremely! hot.

After dinner Kareem and I sent Sarah home with Ant and went to Baskin Robbins. Guess who happened to show up needing some more Won...oh now you know me!!!!!! Sigh! So I gave them some Won and they ordered the ice cream fondue. It's neat! They have these already made ice cream mini balls that you dip in chocolate. There are also mini cakes and kiwi fruit and bananas.

This is what 10,000 Won will buy you....a semi smile from your teen!

Here is the ice cream fondue. You don't get to pick your ice cream balls they just give you what is made. Some of it is pretty crazy to an American. There is green tea and pumpkin pudding.And so concludes another fun night with the Owens family. Stay tuned for the Thanksgiving party at our house on Tuesday. Kareem invited the whole English class to come over Tuesday night and try a real old fashioned Thanksgiving meal. I am going to finish my coffee and get started. I'll take a ton of pictures!! bye all!!

We had something called Taste Of Korea on Camp Walker Saturday. The locals got together and set up a couple of shows and a bunch of food for us to see and taste. It was alot of fun! There was a tea ceremony and also a marriage promising ceremony. You have to go to Jen's blog to see some other really good pictures...http://www.wackyhappenings.blogspot.comI have to add a disclaimer and say that the first couple of pictures I "borrowed" from her site...thans Jen!! This picture is of Bipimbap. It is a bunch of vegetables with meat in a bowl. You add broth and a ton of hot paste then wallah..you have a meal. I'm not to crazy about it cause it's spicey but most of the family loves it.

This is a screen used for wedding ceremonies. Isn't it beautiful!!

When I read Jen's site she said these were kites.

This is a lotus flower. There were a ton of them hung up all over the gym, where the Taste Of Korea was being held.

See..they were all over and they were made of paper. Someone took a big effort here!

Here is a woman dressed in the traditional garb. Now these outfits are pretty pricey. I think they start at a couple of hundred dollars. When you're average salary is under $10,000 that's A LOT! of money!

These guys were doing some sort of dance when we walked in. They had these "beanie" style hats on their heads with a long piece of fabric. They swung the piece of fabric all over the place. It was really neat.

See...there he goes swinging that thing away.

This is a picture of the back of his hat.Anyway, a good time was had by all Owens'. We ate a ton of food and took a bunch of pictures. Then we went home and slept for two hours. Whew!! It is exhausting being exciting!! heehee

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Tonight I was watching Boston Legal and at the end Denny Crane told Alan Shore that it was fun being him. Then he asked..is it fun being you? K here is where I'm going with this. I started thinking...that's it! Let's start a movement. Take every day as it comes and promise yourself to have fun being you. Whatever that is. Just make sure that you are enjoying it. I told myself that I wouldn't complain one time about moving to Korea. See my hubby was supposed to go to Iraq for a year. His orders got changed and then they said Korea for a year...alone. Then! Then they said he could bring us but we'd hate it. I told myself...after thanking God for keeping my hubby safe, that I would never regret coming here and that I would make sure that my kiddos and I enjoyed ourself to the fullest. We have fun. We go to markets and buy crazy colorful things..we eat anything they place in front of us and laugh if we hate it (there's always cereal at home) we get in the car on Saturdays and just drive til we stop. Then we get out and explore. Lastly I keep this blog to remind me of the fun we are having. I have to say "it's fun being me." So go and have some fun being you today and think about me when you are laughing. I'll be thinking of you.dawn